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For Christmas i was given one of those track day experience vouchers. If you dont know, they are a code you are given to enter into a website, click on the experience, pick a date and venue and off you go. I was given an opportunity to drive 3 star cars around castle combe. The cars from the list included the original bat mobile, fast and furious cars, general lee dodge charger, starsky and hutch ford Torino, mustang gt500 eleanor from gone in 60 seconds. Plus some bond cars and Ferrari's and so on. I picked the general lee charger, GT40 and one other car which didnt run on the day so I was given extra laps in the 2 cars that I picked. The general lee was like driving a boat. It was huge, so no complaining about how big modern cars are. It was fun but I was itching to get in the GT40. Once my turn came round, I walked over to it and wondered like at the NEC wether I would actually fit. Being freezing today I had I big coat on too. I shoe horned myself in. Knees around the steering wheel but I was in. Once I was briefed by the instructor we left the pits for some fast ish laps. What a drive. By the third lap we were flying with the instructor pushing me to give it more. Slowly getting used to the gear change and being gentle on the clutch. The noise was immense, handled great. But you know me...... classic fords and i always seem to go wrong. And heading back into the pits we lost 1st and 2nd gears. We switched off and rolled/pushed into the pit bay. It was game over for the GT40 Still had a great day and who knows, if escort prices match GT40s I might have to swap.

GT40-the clue is in the name @ 40 inches tall. Awesome though one of my all time favourite cars must have been a blast!

I'm in the process of trying to document all the old Fords from my past into a blog. I'll post a link here when it's finished but I thought I'd share a few of the 30+ I've owned over the last 31 years. My first love is Capris but I've owned both Escorts and Cortinas, vans, track cars, low mileage granny spec to bodged V8 projects.,,I have owned just about every thing from the RWD ford stable that was available in Australia from about 69-82 and a few later ones. Now I'm living back in the UK, I'm reducing my fleet (which was upto 8 cars at one stage) to 2 classics and a daily. Here a few of them....starting with one I only owned for a few months. This mk1 Escort will be known to the Australian members. Built by a group of guys from the RSOC in Victoria, I bought it as a shell with hopes of housing a hot pinto I just happened to have lying around. Unfortunately, running a small business (as I did at the time) involves paying taxes to the government (apparently) so when my tax bill came up this particular year this poor Escort drew the short straw. The car was sold back to an RSOC member who did return it to the track but sadly the car was involved in a terminal accident. Fortunately a roll cage I sourced for the car was employed and the driver walked away shaken but not stirred.

Just joined the forum as last week I bought a bit of a mk1 escort.. Just a shell, more rust than metal. Literally nothing else with it apart from rusty doors not attached, the previous owner had even kindley cut the door hinges off. I'm hoping to make what I can and just gather parts and bits whilst the weathers crap and then crack on with putting it together in the summer. Ill be making a build thread on it when I get started. Need a few more parts first. So Hi! Jake

Sent to me earlier by a mate.... ∅ _This message has been deleted by WhatsApp from *your phone* as it contained female nudity, the new artificial intelligence built into WhatsApp indicated that you do not like women because you are a massive bender_

Well it sold. Happy with that. Hope the new owner uses it and looks after it. https://www.silverstoneauctions.com/events/2020-auctions/race-retro-classic-competition-car-sale-2020/race-retro-classic-competition-car-sale-2020/classic-cars-saturday-22nd-february-2020/1979-ford-escort-rs2000-four-door

It's height is specced on dimensional drawings at 38.5". A statement on the cars name says : Early cars were simply named "Ford GT" for Grand Touring), the name of Ford's project to prepare the cars for the international endurance racing circuit. The "40" represented its height of 40 inches (1.02 m), measured at the windshield, the maximum allowed. However, either way, that's one big gerbil 😁Great pics and sounds like you had a good day 👍

I'm 6'3" and at the limit of fitting in the car. Looking at that pic, the car can only be 3foot in height. It was a good job the door/roof had a bubble for the top of my head 😄

And speaking of panel vans....after owning dozens of rough ones in the past I was in the mood for another one when bored sitting in a night class I bid and won this van on ebay. Phone apps are not good things for people with my condition. The van looked very neat from the photos but was 2 and a half hours drive away. Not having the time to look at it before bidding, I broke my own cardinal rule and bought it without looking at it. Thankfully, the gamble turned out right and I picked up a very solid van for a bargain price and the seller even organised a cheap tow down to Melbourne from country Victoria. I went onto spend a bit of money to get it RW then sold it to my mate Ryan who had it for a year or so. I did get to drive it which was nice but not being a massive fan of the Kent engine I'm sure it would have come out if I had kept it. I remember it was a matching number car (rare in Australia) so I wasn't fussed about moving that on as I had already bought a better 2.0 van at the time that I still own, today.

Another Escort which I owned twice before moving on yet again was an RS2000. Appently it was owned at one stage by a V8 super car driver. He apparently moved it on to concentrate on a BDA mk1 Escort project. i bought it off ebay from another Escort guru in Melbourne....again, this was to house my infamous pinto engine that I'll find a home for one day. It was partially restored, painted but showing signs of underlying issues. The floor on the drivers side was bashed to such an extent that you couldn't depress the clutch fully. I marginal improved that but that's about all I did. It had it Scheel (roll top) seats but it looked like a dog had eaten them. The head was also missing from the engine. i moved it on to a friend who did do some improvements, namely painted the nosecone back to black (I never really understood the monotone look it had previously). I couldn't refuse buying it back it was so cheap but I was just about done with the RS2000 bug (thankfully as it was about to get very expensive) so I gave the car to my mechanic who was looking for one at the time. Another one that I probably shouldn't have parted with but I was hankering for a panel van and needs must.

But lllllovers will be lovers 🧡

Totally envious. First time I have ever been able to put a face to the name after all these years. Your really really tall! Or is the GT40 just really really tiny?

Ive got all the parts that have been modified/removed from my mk3 Cortina, when new it was a 1.3 with 4 speed box and wallowing suspension, it is now a tweaked 2.9 v6 on throttle bodys with 190 brake at the wheels, 5 speed box, power steering and sorted suspension, so it could be returned to factory but why would you? if it had been left as standard and not acquired by me 20 years ago it would be long gone as it was destined to be a chicken shed!

Good facials in pic 3 Chris 😁 Looks a great day out #jealous, I expect for my birthday it will be socks or some other 💩 again.